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Week to recall lost

Story appeared in: Review | August 1st, 2017

EACH year thousands of people go missing in Australia and most are found within hours or days.
However for others, their family and friends are left for years wondering what could have happened to them.
On a hopeful day, those left behind imagine that their loved one is living "a happy life" and just doesn't want to be found, but on darker days the fear rises that they have been abducted or murdered.
The theme of this year's NSW Missing Persons Week campaign is 'Still waiting for you to come home' and that is the situation that the families of Bianca Nelson, Cengiz Sarac, Raphael Joseph and Quanne Diec find themselves in.
For the Diec family, the wait is especially difficult because in November last year, detectives charged 49-year-old Vinzent Tarantino with the 12-year-old's murder after she disappeared in July 1998, however despite subsequent searches of bushland, her remains have yet to be located.
Mr Tarantino's case is due back in court this month.
Unfortunately, police also believe that Mr Joseph who was aged 38 when he disappeared from Auburn in March 2014 and Mr Sarac, who also used the name Chris Martin, and was 24 when he disappeared in 2005, have both also met with foul play.
This year's campaign also aims to raise awareness about the significant number of young people reported missing. Out of the 10,909 missing persons reports made in NSW in 2016, approximately 5,380 are under the age of 18.
Bianca Nelson was 14 when she disappeared from her Regents Park home on May 2, 1991.
The teenager had been having arguments with her mother and a friend told investigators she was associating with a man who was a 'religious fanatic' and went missing by choice.
Cengiz Sarac disappeared after getting into a white four door sedan outside his Auburn home on August 2, 2005.
Police have serious concerns for his well-being.
Raphael Joseph, who was also known as Rafi Tooma and as 'Huss' or 'Hussany' to his family and friends, was aged 38 when he disappeared on March 21, 2014. He was last seen getting into the back seat of a late-model, silver sedan on Dartbrook Road, Auburn. It is believed he was kidnapped and there are grave concerns for his well-being.